The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Sid Hartman, the legendary Star Tribune sports writer, loomed over me as I patiently waited for the private media elevator to arrive at the Minnesota Wild home opener. Hartman casually glanced at the press pass hanging from my neck and shrugged. He could've cared less. It was my very first time on assignment as a sports journalist, though, and I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. I was so amped (and dorky) that I proudly displayed my shiny red press pass on the front of my shirt like a 4-H Club prize winning ribbon.

University of Minnesota Athletics Director Joel Maturi is a triple-A battery of a man. Walk into his office at the Bierman Athletic Building on the East Bank and he leaps out of his chair and shakes your hand as if you’re about to parachute out of an airplane together. Trim and fit at 62, Maturi is glib and empathetic.

The last time our Golden Gophers won a Big Ten football championship, none of this year’s players had been born. It’s possible that some of their parents hadn’t either. In 1967, we had a shifty quarterback named Curt Wilson, a bruising fullback from South St. Paul named Jim Carter, and an All-American defensive end in St. Louis Park’s Bob Stein. The team finished 8-2 and shared the conference title with Indiana and Purdue.

The other night, two-dozen hockey fans milled around the Iron Range Grill. They were biding their time. Across the corridor, in a half hour, the puck would drop on the big sheet of ice at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild, enjoying a hot streak early in the season, would be facing the Vancouver Canucks, a flourishing new rivalry.